Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) remained hospitalized yesterday after being sent to the hospital on Wednesday night for the second time since Nov. 3, when she began a hunger strike to protest her detention over alleged corruption.
“Su was extremely weak and sick when she arrived on Wednesday night. We were planning to release her after administering several injections, but we decided to keep her in for more necessary medication,” said Chang Shih-chieh (張世杰), vice president of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Huwei Township (虎尾), Yunlin County.
Chang said Su continues to refuse to eat.
Meanwhile, Chiayi County Commissioner Chen Ming-wen (陳明文), who is also in detention over alleged corruption, has also begun a hunger strike. The Chiayi Detention Center said yesterday afternoon that Chen had stopped eating on Tuesday.
Liao Wen-chen (廖文珍), the detention house spokeswoman, said that guards had been unaware of Chen’s decision because he only told them he had no appetite.
Chen’s lawyer, Liu Tung-yi (劉烔意), held a press conference in Chiayi yesterday afternoon to publicize Chen’s will. The will, dated on Tuesday, said he had been falsely accused and the case against him was a political one under the veneer of a judicial process.
“I cannot stand being falsely accused. I am staging a hunger strike as a protest,” Chen said in a message to his wife. “If something adverse happens during the strike, please be strong in raising our children.”
Several of Chen’s supporters said they would fast outside the Chiayi Detention Center to show their support for Chen and to protest the judicial process.
Democratic Progressive Party spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said that Chen was detained on Oct. 28, but prosecutors have not questioned him since then.
“Prosecutors are detaining him for no reason,” Cheng said.
Su was detained over allegations she accepted NT$5 million (US$150,000) in bribes to fast-track the construction of a Yunlin County landfill project.
Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) visited Su yesterday morning. She criticized what she called “the flawed process” of Su’s detention and urged prosecutors to investigate allegations of corruption by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials.
When approached by reporters, Lu said that although she did not know the full details of Su’s case, the entire detention process was obviously not persuasive.
“Human rights and justice in Taiwan have taken a big step back since Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) became president,” Lu said. “Prosecutors are detaining and then they are trying to make the person confess before convicting them. This is wrong.”
Lu said she told Su that her hunger strike had served its purpose in attracting attention, but she had to start taking care of her health.
“I told her that health is the most important. I hope that she will listen to me,” Lu said.
She said that Hsinchu and Nantou counties and Keelung have corruption problems, but she had not seen prosecutors following those leads. She urged them to do so.
“The public requests fairness. That is all,” Lu said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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